Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistain, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat, a senior B.O. regime official said Saturday.The Libyan national who was the network's former operational leader rose to al-Qaeda's No. 2 spot after the US killed al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no more...
during a raid on his Pakistain compound in May.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
said last month that al-Qaeda's defeat was within reach if the US could mount a string of successful attacks on the group's weakened leadership.
"Now is the moment, following what happened with bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them," Panetta said, "because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple al-Qaeda as a major threat."
Al-Rahman was killed Aug. 22 in the lawless Pak tribal region of Wazoo, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.The official would not say how al-Rahman was killed. But his death came on the same day that a CIA drone strike was reported in Waziristan. Such strikes by unmanned aircraft are Washington's weapon of choice for killing Islamic fascisti in the mountainous, hard-to-reach area along the Pakistain-Afghanistan border.
Al-Rahman, believed to be in his mid-30s, was a close confidant of bin Laden and once served as bin Laden's emissary to Iran.
Al-Rahman was allowed to move freely in and out of Iran as part of that arrangement and had been operating out of Waziristan for some time, officials have said.
Born in Libya, al-Rahman joined bin Laden as a teenager in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.
After Navy SEALs killed bin Laden, they found evidence of al-Rahman's role as operational chief, US officials have said.